March 20, 2012 • 28 mins
Godzilla vs. Kong vs. Barbie: Are you terrified of giant monster attacks? Well, this is the episode for you. Join Robert and Julie as they calm your fears with a healthy dose of science. Listen in as they examine the morphological limitations of gigantic creatures (and more).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And
today we're talking about monsters. We're talking about Godzilla also
known as uh Gohira, and we're talking about King Kong,
(00:25):
and we're maybe gonna well, you know, we are going
to talk a little bit about Barbie. She's a monster,
and most important, we're talking about the science of all this.
But before we we really dive into it, what is
your experience with with giant monsters? Well, you know, have
a three year old, yes, right, So Barney is the
first thing I think of. Oh I thought you were
going to say she was like a small monster. Oh
(00:46):
well yeah, she kind of yeah, yeah, yeah, And it
is kind of funny how actually I'm sure to her,
I'm a big monster, and she actually loves for my
husband and I to chase her around and sort of
do the big monster arms. So for sure, there's there
are some themes going on there, but Barney is favored.
Barney I think of as a monster. Um, I think
of the crack and of course one of my favorite monsters.
(01:09):
Oh from my class at the time. Yes, yeah, um,
Paul Bunyan. Was there a movie about Paula or just
in general this stor like super giant kind of a
human but not how come no one ever did? Uh?
I mean that would be that would have been great
to have like a purely American. I mean, I guess
King Kong is really our American giant monster, but even
(01:30):
he's an import Paul Bunyan. But Paul Bunyan in his
giant Ox attacking San Francisco, like that would be that
would be a great foot Yeah, I know. I mean,
I don't think that people think of Paul Bunyan is menacing,
but I do I think that there's a plot line here.
What about you? I mean, I grew up as a
young boy, so I was very into the monster films,
especially the one I've mentioned. I think it's like a
(01:52):
TBS or something. They had the grand Grandpa Monster hosted
a like a midday monster show, and they were aways
showing like Godzilla movies, and you know, of course they're
there are just tons of Gods older movies. So it's
Gods older versus this versus that versus like a whole
cadre of of various rubber suited villains. So you know,
I was heavy into those and I got then. I
(02:13):
I was an am big mystery signed theater, a few
thousand fan, and a lot of the movies that they
watched when involved giant rubber monster suits. And uh. One
of my favorites today, which which I won't I won't
get break into too much, but is a film called
Hanuman Versus Seven Ultraman, and it is a it's an
Ultraman film, but it's a it's a Thai Japanese co
(02:34):
production in which Hanuman, the monkey god out of Hindu
mythology but also very important in Thai culture. Hanuman teams
up with the Ultraman and an ultra woman. I'm not
really sure. I'm more up on the Hindu mythology than
Ultraman mythology, but they team up to just beat the
tar out of a bunch of hideous monsters that emerge
(02:55):
from like a rocket fact manufacturing plant or something. So
it's goofy and beauty full and psychedelic and from like, yeah,
sixties or seventies, and it's it's well worth hunting down
if you're you two are a monster fan. But I
guess one of the things that I'm really highlighting here
is like silliness, Like there's definitely a large amount of
silliness and fun like kids love Gammera, kids love Godzilla.
(03:17):
But if you go all the way back to n Gohira,
you're you're really looking at a different animal. Especially if
you're you're not you're not dealing with the americanized version
that came out, like Raymond Burron and all the different translation.
But the original Grim Go Heiro movie is a different
animal time, right, because I mean, this is a far
more complex creature, right. The American version is not so
(03:40):
much concerned about the radiation part, right, right, right, But
the Japanese version, this is a creature born of radiation
and exuding radiation, right, I mean, the whole sort of
part of the mythology of an atomic test and it
brings this monster into being. But yeah, this original one,
like people were dying just from being near Godzilla and
right close to it, right, And there are far more
(04:01):
scenes of individuals. It's more of a disaster film than
a lot of the subsequent Godzilla films. Lots of people fling,
lots of people in camps, lots of people in hospitals
and lots of people dying from radiation poisoning. Culturally, it's
such an interesting film because you look at Japan's place
in the world at the time. You know, it's like
we're in the shadows of the Second World War, in
the shadows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and other incidents. Go
(04:23):
Here references an incident involving an American thermonuclear device attested
near Bikini. Ititall in the Pacific code named Bravos, detonated
with about two point five times greater force than anticipated,
and the fallout from the bomb it ended up enveloping
this tuna trawler named the Lucky Dragon number five, and
it's just just coated in like a blizzard or radioactive ash.
(04:45):
And so the crew members in return to their home
port and they're black, and they've blistered skin, just a
cute radiation sickness, and and all the tuna is irradiated.
And so, you know, I was reading some some interesting
commentary on this, which I'll link to on the blogs
so that people can explore it further. But there's a
lot of interesting commentary on how like this incident in particular,
especially on the heels of the Second World War. I mean,
(05:07):
the Japanese culture is very concerned with hygiene and uh,
and then you have this situation where you know, we're
just radioactively contaminated and not sure what is clean anymore.
And then there's also commentary to make about in especially
in subsequent Godzilla films, you see Japan using all of
its technological prowess to fight off an opposing force, and
that it can be argued that postwar Japan felt rather
(05:30):
powerless to a certain degree in the global climate, you know,
because they've just come off this disastrous armed conflict, and
so their fantasy world, their fictional worlds kind of reflect
this longing to be able to deal with problems more directly.
I mean not to limit the films to just that
it's not just a one plus one equals to situation,
but but those themes are pretty strong in the in
(05:51):
the films. Well, I was gonna say, you see that
anxiety working itself out quite a bit in these films.
Are twenty eight Godzilla films, and now is that counting
the the Geno movie. I believe that is, and I
know that that has been called an abomination, and not
in a good way. It's just the one where the
version of Godzilla is is that he's a lizard gets
(06:14):
messed with because of a nuclear meltdown and scatters it
and becomes a monster, which is kind of I mean,
I mean, I know that you know, Godzilla is uh
far fetched anyway, but I mean you couldn't make it
any more far fetched with that premise, right, But yeah,
twenty eight films, and from what I understand to Godzilla,
you know, at first is a very menacing figure, right
(06:36):
is the embodiment of the problems of nuclear energy, nuclear warfare,
and then he comes to later on represents somewhat of
a hero or at least take on this part of
as someone who is helping the people. And in fact,
they have different versions of god Godzilla versus this Godzilla
versus that Godzilla versus the small monster ecological problem um.
(07:02):
You see, especially in the famous Keen congressus Godzilla, which
is you know, interpromotional dream match there. This is really
on a slightly removed scale. This is the US versus
Japan again, and each country's cut has a slightly different
preference in who's the superior super monster. But then in
later films, Godzilla becomes not only a champion of Japan,
but a champion of Earth itself, defending Earth against various catastrophes.
(07:25):
And and then Godzilla's can do the same like Gammra
as always protecting the planet, protecting children, which I think
is kind of beautiful. Again, it's kind of the idea
that these uh we create, especially in the original Godzilla
and Gohira, we create this avatar of all our all
the worst possibilities of humanity, this frightening thing, and then
we're able to transform it into something positive, into into
(07:48):
like a strength. I don't know. I guess you can
make the argument too that it's kind of casting the
warnings aside and forgetting what the native potent to begin with.
But yeah, but again I think it's so this is
where you know, art movies paint things. Everything that sort
of allows us to work out these anxieties comes into play.
And in fact, MPR had a story this morning that
was talking about Fukushima a year later, Um, you know,
(08:11):
the the earthquake, the tsunami and um and then the
subsequent you know, mountdown of the three reactors, uh and
that you know, the real problem right now a year later,
isn't so much the radiation levels, which really aren't as
bad as the initially thought because much of them were
swept away by the winds out over the Pacific, but
(08:31):
more that it's it's a psychological problem because again you
have this long history with with you know, nuclear materials
Japan and this distrust and the year later, people are
still not quite sure if they feel, you know, like
they're on terra firma just you know, with their government,
with their food supplies, and it's just it's kind of interesting.
(08:51):
So they were saying that is not a culture that
really invests a lot into mental health. I mean they have,
you know, obviously you can go and you at medical attention,
but it's not so much geared towards mental health. So
there's not so much an outlet there. King Kong, on
the other hand, there's there's not I don't know, he's
not quite as deep. No, no, I mean this is
what the nineteen thirty three that King Kong comes on
(09:12):
the scene, and people have pointed to King Kong and
said that, you know, definitely King Kong embodies UM, so
that the naivete of American society and especially UM concerning
race relations at that time but yeah, King Kong, because
he's his foreign threat, this subhuman threat, and I think
you can sort of from an exotic place, exotic place.
(09:33):
He wants to steal women, climb buildings, and yeah, yeah, yeah,
I guess if you look at King Kong from that standpoint,
he's kind of awful, Like he's also kind of an
avatar of awfulness, just maybe in his an initial inception
when they want as conscious of it. Whereas Go here
is obviously the themes are a lot more prevalent and
on the surface, whereas King Kong and the awfulness is
(09:53):
kind of hidden. And yet in King Kong in the story,
you're meant to feel empathy for this creature, so you're
you to fear him, but you also are too empathize
with him, right because here he is he's the last
survivors species. He's lived on School Island his entire life.
He's a beautiful girl. Uh you know, he tries to
(10:14):
to I don't know, to make out with her or whatever,
and then he is essentially enslaved, brought to New York,
he made to perform on Broadway. I know, I always
forget about that portion of the story. And then and
then of course, the whole building thing and the airplane. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's a sad story. The remake of that was
a lot more in keeping with I guess the spirit
of the original is that the Jessica Lang one. Oh
(10:36):
there were no there were a couple of remixes, right,
there's one that there was like an eighties version of it. Yeah, yeah,
and that one was I think that one was just
kind of weird. I don't know if anyone has any
real love for that film outside of maybe you know,
cheesy enthusiasm. But then Peter Jackson, Oh that's right, okay, yea, yeah,
which my only problems with that one is a it
seemed I think that movie is like six hours long
(10:56):
or something like. It's awfully long for King Kong, and
I'll so I remember it just had some really look over.
I mean, I love dark imagery as much as the
next person, but like, this is King Kong and there's
this scene where these like all these horrible giant insect
monsters are like meeting people and giant slugs are like
sucking people's faces, and I remember thinking that this is
a bit dark. Jackson, Um, well, it was filler to
(11:18):
your point. You can't really make a film that long
with the premise of King Kong, you know, but still
it was over like everything was like like they're like
King Kong, let's do this, except we're gonna it's gonna
be King Kong on steroids. In the original, he fights
one dinosaur. This time he's gonna fight two dinosaurs. You know,
that's right, all right, So let's let's let's throw some
science on these beasts. Yeah, first, let's take a quick break,
(11:39):
and when we come back, we'll see stabbling about the
culture behind these monsters and so forth, and we will
start talking about the science behind gigantic animals and whether
it's even pot Alright, so we're back, and it's time
to get into the morphological limits of giant monsters. Yeah yeah, okay.
(12:03):
So here's here's just something that's a basic Okay, all right,
So if you're going to create something that's bigger than
the original, um, the weight as a function of their
volume is going to increase dramatically faster than does the
surface area, right this creature. This is important to remember
because this has a lot of important consequences. Um. So,
(12:24):
basically is that if you're going to double something size
and keep its proportions the same. The weight doesn't double
or even quadruple. It actually increases by a factor of eight. Okay,
so when we're talking about King Kong, we're talking about
a gorilla that is super giant, right, And when we're
talking about Godzilla, we're talking about dinosaur hybrid that is
(12:47):
runs on both gas and electric. That's right. He does
have some electric properties similar, which doesn't make any sense
with the flames in the radioactivity. I mean there's a
lot going on there anyway. Well, radioactive firestorms. I mean
that's part of the whole nuclear apocalypse scenario, you know,
Like you see the ridges on his back start to
get electrified, and then the fire comes out of his mouth,
and yet at the same time he's always exuding radiation.
(13:09):
I'm just saying, Yeah, there's a lot of port for
one fork. Yeah, well, Gamra has it coming out both ends.
So because you've seen Gamra, right, a big turtle, he
can retract his back to legs and then fire comes
out and he flies around. But I was going to
make like a little gas joke. There should be eight
year old boy in me. Yeah, I should have brought
in my Gamera toy too help us with this, but
(13:31):
I'm getting off track gadding about monsters. Another way to
look at this mass thing that I really like is
the spherical cow analogy. Alright, So the shape of an
animal can be a little complex, and it's a simpler
if you look at something like a cow, and look
at the cow and imagine it as just a sphere
like the mass just reduced to a sphere of calmus, okay,
(13:52):
and then imagine increasing the size of that that mass,
all right, And again the volume increases more rapidly than
the surface area. So if you double the ray idious
of the sphere, the surface area increases four times, and
the volume increases eight times. That again, like you said,
you double something size, and if it keeps the same proportions,
the weight doesn't double or even quadruple, it increases eightfold.
(14:13):
So you have something like King Kong, right, who is
thirty feet high in the film, five times the size
of a real gorilla, and his proportions are more or
less the same. If you were to take an actual
gorilla and you were to blow it up like that
in a you know, honey, I blew up the kid's fashion,
the creature would not be able to stand, its legs
would break. Basically, its own weights bones can't support it.
We're talking about thirty ft high tons, right. Yeah. I
(14:35):
was reading an interesting country about the size of animals
and how the size of something is very much. I
mean it's it's not just a matter of oh, this
is a big one and this is a little one. Yes,
there are there's a certain amount to be said about
dwarf is m versus gigantism in organisms. But but takes
something like a whale, Like a whale is large, and
whale is massive, and its mass allows it, among other things,
(14:57):
to keep warm and chilling waters. If you were to
reduce a blue whale to the size of a minnow,
it would not be able to stay warm. Its size
is part of its function. Would actually have to consume
far more, right for energy. Right, Yeah, That's why you
have things like mice and other small animals that are
just so ravenous that have an endless hunger because they're
having to keep up their metabolism. Yep. Yeah. So when
(15:18):
you're looking at King Kong and you're talking about a
creature that's a hundred and twenty five times heavier than
an original gorilla, right, and you also have the problem
that relative to the size, King Kong has only twenty
five times the surface area of an ape skin. Okay,
this is important because on top of that, you have
(15:38):
for that is five times as thick as a real gorilla.
Because he needs to lose excess heat, he's metabolizing like
like other mammals to keep warm. He's metabolizing. He us
to lose that excess heat, but he has less skin
to lose it through and more for that's insulating, right,
So it's a lot harder to wick off that heat, right, right,
So I mean you would have to shave constant and
(16:00):
then that might do it a hairless King Kong, which
would completely change that storyline, I think. But I mean,
just think about that if he were to try to
do any sort of normal movements. You know, first of all,
he would collapse again under the weight of um of himself.
But also he would probably collapse because you wouldn't be
able to again get rid of the heat, and so
(16:21):
he would just be in a jumbled mess. He wouldn't
be able to get the girl and climb to the
top of the Empire State building. Right. Another thing to
know about the legs again, he would need larger leg bones.
He would just need bigger legs in general, and he
would probably need a different gait, you know, instead of
having like eight light bendy knees, he would need more
of a straight legged type of movement, which would probably
limit his ability to climb skyscrapers. Yeah, indeed, all right,
(16:43):
let's talk about one husky boy here, Godzilla. Well, Godzilla
has kind of a leg up on the situation on
one hand, because because he's cold blighted or I don't know,
presumably he is cold lighted. Um. And in the American version, well,
who knows. In the America that doesn't count. Presumably Godzilla
is is cold blooded and accounting the nuclear fires brewing
(17:06):
in his belly. And uh. And we look back to
the dinosaurs, and these are clearly a great example of
a large creature that was a probably cold blooded you
know where the drew is kind of but but presumably
cold blooded for the sake of this argument, and was
walking around on land. Some of these guys were quite huge.
(17:28):
And while we used to think that some of these
different sarropods were we're walking around in the muck or
in the water. To help you, know, to buoy them,
especially if they if they were to make love right right, Yeah,
we talked about that in the dinosaurs. They probably the species,
but yeah, if they were going to make out, knock
boots whatever, there was always that question of how do
they actually do this because they are so weighty, um,
(17:50):
and in in Godzilla's case, we were talking about sixty
thou tons, right, like the size of a battleship, and
he does emerge from the ocean. That's worth noting. But
back to battleship. That's another interesting example. I ran across
took a battleship out of the water and put it
on land, like it would to what extent would it
fall apart because it doesn't have water holding it right? Right?
But okay, so the dinosaurs, for a while we have
(18:10):
thought that they that some of these larger models were
having to stay in the water all the time to
support their weight. A lot of the footprint information that
we have and now the fossilized prints, indicate that they
were walking around at least in the mud, you know,
and that therefore we're capable of land movement, maybe even
running as fast as stay an elephant, uh, you know,
like three miles per hour, I think. But here's the thing.
(18:32):
Addition having really thick legs like a cong or a
Godzilla would need. They also walked around on four, which
is again is an enormous help in Godzilla is walking
around on two. Well, especially if you're thinking about the
heart and pumping blood, it's another key thing because your
brain needs some of that blood. Yeah, and you we've
you know, sore pods have been somewhat of a mystery
in that respect too, right, because they have really long
(18:54):
necks and they have huge bodies, and so you're talking
about pumping blood from when end up a two hundred
meter long body to the other and that's a lot
of pressure. So if your Godzilla, you know, in order
to resist that kind of pressure, your arteries near your
heart would have to be made out of steel, you know,
and so that your your heart didn't burst. Yeah, Like
even giraffes, we've talked about the about this, their hearts
(19:16):
after piece very high pressure to force the blood all
the way to their brains. And uh, way back, one
of our first few podcasts tore that we talked about
exploding heads and reheb there was the some people are asking, well, well,
how come the giraffe's head doesn't explode when it bends
down to drink. There's actually they have a cluster of
arteries and veins that divert the blood flow under the
right circumstances to equalize the blood pressure. They've got adaptations
(19:39):
for that. But the blood pressure involved in some of these, uh,
these dinosaurs, these long necked sauropods, is like we're we're
looking at like eight times what would we encounter in
a normal animal. So something like Godzilla or or King Kong,
they would have to have tremendous blood pressure, like you said,
to just to keep the brain active, right, or you know,
maybe maybe they just get dizzy very once in a
(20:00):
while and that's why they're swiveling around the cities and
destroying everything. Well, that's that's I'm glad that you mentioned
dizziness because that's one way to get a quick idea
of what this is. What we're talking about with the
blood of the brain. Lay down for a few minutes
and then get up really quick. But not right now,
right now, So don't we don't know what you're doing.
I mean, you could be on a bus, on a
train walking, but that feeling that you get when you
(20:20):
get up really quick and you're like, oh, I'm so dizzy.
That's because you've your position has changed the bloodstic to
your brain. Uh. Imagine if you were even taller, it
would be even more of an issue. So that's another
thing to take into a consideration with these giant animals
is how's the blood flow gonna work? How are they
going to get blood to their brain? That we're dealing
with a whole new set of engineering problems. Here's another
sticking point, Godzi less skin. Yes, okay, it has to
(20:43):
be somehow strong enough to resist bullets variety of munitions,
but yet flexible enough to move around. Right, So I
mean that's that that's some serious engineering right there. It is. Yeah,
and nanotechnology wasn't even you know, next since in nine um.
(21:03):
And then another key issue to keep in mind with
the animal size is that you have to ask your
stuff like why why are animals as big as they are?
And why do they remain that way? Well? Um, like
size evolution has a lot to do with the arms
race between prey and predators and surviving various environments, like
there has to be a reason for something to be
(21:23):
that big, and granted, Godzilla kind of gets by with
the whole Oh it's a mutation or it's you know,
ancient ancient animal from a previous ecosystem plus radiation equals
something that doesn't quite make sense. King Kong has less
of an excuse because he's just living on an island somewhere, right,
And does he really have an environment and ecosystem that
supports his size. I mean, granted, there are like dinosaurs
(21:46):
on Skull Island and presumably he's eating some of those, right,
But yeah, but if he's the largest and most fierce too,
I mean, he doesn't have a natural predator that he
needs to be really that large and dominate anyway. Yeah,
I mean it's like when we're talking about super predators,
especially like this was us, wasn't it? Or I feel
like we were talking about this in the past podcast
about then are doppelgangers maybe oh yeah, oh their their podcast?
(22:08):
Yeah mind yeah, yeah, Okay, But if you think of
like any kind of superprederor especially like the prehistoric superpredators
like this giant like super shark, super tyrannosaur type creatures,
imagine them as kings the top of pyramid of bones
there at the very top, and that that pyramid gets
wider as you reach the ground, because those are all
(22:29):
the layers of food that have to support them. Like
the lowest layer, of course, is like plants, and then
there are a whole bunch of things that eat those plants,
and then things that eat those animals, and then things
to those animals, and at the very top you have
this this lofty king of all things. The environment can
only support so many of those guys, and there are
limits to what they can support, what they can give, right,
(22:51):
and what they can give. So so that's another thing
you have to ask about, especially like a King Kong
or anything that lives on a monster island, is to
what extent could the ecosystem possibly support an animal and
how how long could it supported before you know, Kim
Kong wiped out everything? Right, right, Yeah, he's not very sustainable,
that's the thing. So he's a perfect symbol for American culture.
(23:13):
I'm about to say, yeah, he's He's a good symbol
for gluttony for sure, Bob. But another symbol of American culture, right,
oh yeah, yeah, another beast um. What we're talking about
is the blonde haired giant menace Barbie. Uh. Since two
thousand and seven, Gallia Sland, now a student at Hamilton College,
(23:35):
unveils a monster she created for the purpose of showing,
um uh people the the sort of body dysmorphia present
in the Barbie doll. And she presents this at the
National Eating Disorder Awareness Week at different events. It is
a life size Barbie that she created. And I'm just
gonna throw some stats out there. Um, if Barbie were
(23:58):
an actual woman, Okay, she would be five ft nine
that's a reasonable height for yeah, yeah, she would have
a thirty nine inch bust. Now, Okay, in these times
of padding, maybe that doesn't seem too huge, but just
think about it that that really is quite large. It's
more like on par with maybe Dolly Parton, Okay, Okay,
(24:19):
So Dolly Parton is a good frame of preference for that. Okay, Yeah,
an eighteen inch waist, which is insane, Like, who would
that be on part with? That would be Vivianly from
Gone with a Wind And she was corseted to a
nineteen inch waist, and that's insane because she's super petite. Okay,
I think woman corseted to the point of passing out. Yeah,
(24:40):
to think about the like your typical hourglass dimensions would be,
you know, like thirty thirty four, thirty four being the hips,
twenty four being the waist, thirty four being the bust. Okay,
So here we have Barbie five nine, thirty nine bust,
eighteen inch waist and thirty three hips okay, so very
slender hips and a size three shoe. Okay. Now, of course,
(25:03):
with all the other Godzilla and King Kong proportions that
you know, that doesn't seem too crazy. But again, you
know these when we get the Godzilla dolls or I
should say toys rather or King Kong toys, we don't
actually think of them as fashioned after ourselves, whereas Barbie
is fashioned after a female human. So at five nine
tall and win one ten pounds, Barbie would have a
(25:26):
body that index of sixteen point two four and she
likely would not menstruate because of this, And if you
were a real woman, she would have to walk on
all fours due to her proportions. And I just thought
this was fascinating. Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in nine
and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at one pounds,
(25:48):
with a book entitled How to Lose Weight with directions
inside stating simply don't eat. Yeah. Yeah, that this is
the most monsters thing, like discussed in the podcast. And
there are two Barbie dolls sold every second in the world. Wow,
now that is world domination, my friend. Yeah, I far
(26:09):
better than a little girl, a little boy would want
to grow up in the Godzilla I think. I mean,
you can breathe fire. I mean, that's that's pretty cool.
You're turning your your your weaknesses into strength. You're standing
up for the environment, for for nation, for planet, for
little kids. I mean all that Barbie just wants sold
these weight and not learning maths. So yeah, but you know,
(26:30):
just a little fun like, uh talk about the limits
of human I guess you could say proportions. There's something
I want to throw out to the listeners. I wonder
has any work of fiction actually tackled giant creatures in
a more believable manner, like taking into account the physics,
(26:51):
because I generally that that's off the table with these
and I'm not complaining because I enjoy them. But like,
the only example I can think of about hand is
that there's a book by the author Michael Shea, who's
a fabulous sci fi horror and dark fantasy writer An
he wrote these books about this character, nif Bilin, and
he's always going on these like the guy is like
(27:12):
super into Dante's Inferno and the sex lies of the insects.
So he's definitely an author after my own heart. He
writes these sales about these characters, is going into the
underworld and and there's there's one episode where guys to
bring back this elixir to these giant underworld insects used
to to feed their larva, and he brings it up
and they feed it too. Bees. With this scheme, they're
(27:32):
gonna grow giant bees and then they're gonna have lots
of honey. And of course the bees then get so
big they can't fly and they're just rolling around and
the human ends up taking some of this and he
gets so big hecaus just in constant pain. And he's
first rolling around and he doesn't like fall apart at
any or anything, but he ends up having like crawl
into the ocean to support his weight. A dinosaur knocking boots. Yeah,
(27:54):
and then I think he gets like I forget what
happens to him. But if you want to read more
about it, check out the work of Michael Ja. He's
quite pacive. Uh, And do tell us what you think
about giant animals, giant monsters and again if you find
any in in fiction that actually make a little bit
of scientific sense, let us know. You can always find
us on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, we're stuff to
(28:14):
Blow Your Mind, and on Twitter, our Twitter handle is
blow the Mind one word and you can always drop
us a line at blow the Mind at Discovery dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And
today we're talking about monsters. We're talking about Godzilla also
known as uh Gohira, and we're talking about King Kong,
(00:25):
and we're maybe gonna well, you know, we are going
to talk a little bit about Barbie. She's a monster,
and most important, we're talking about the science of all this.
But before we we really dive into it, what is
your experience with with giant monsters? Well, you know, have
a three year old, yes, right, So Barney is the
first thing I think of. Oh I thought you were
going to say she was like a small monster. Oh
(00:46):
well yeah, she kind of yeah, yeah, yeah, And it
is kind of funny how actually I'm sure to her,
I'm a big monster, and she actually loves for my
husband and I to chase her around and sort of
do the big monster arms. So for sure, there's there
are some themes going on there, but Barney is favored.
Barney I think of as a monster. Um, I think
of the crack and of course one of my favorite monsters.
(01:09):
Oh from my class at the time. Yes, yeah, um,
Paul Bunyan. Was there a movie about Paula or just
in general this stor like super giant kind of a
human but not how come no one ever did? Uh?
I mean that would be that would have been great
to have like a purely American. I mean, I guess
King Kong is really our American giant monster, but even
(01:30):
he's an import Paul Bunyan. But Paul Bunyan in his
giant Ox attacking San Francisco, like that would be that
would be a great foot Yeah, I know. I mean,
I don't think that people think of Paul Bunyan is menacing,
but I do I think that there's a plot line here.
What about you? I mean, I grew up as a
young boy, so I was very into the monster films,
especially the one I've mentioned. I think it's like a
(01:52):
TBS or something. They had the grand Grandpa Monster hosted
a like a midday monster show, and they were aways
showing like Godzilla movies, and you know, of course they're
there are just tons of Gods older movies. So it's
Gods older versus this versus that versus like a whole
cadre of of various rubber suited villains. So you know,
I was heavy into those and I got then. I
(02:13):
I was an am big mystery signed theater, a few
thousand fan, and a lot of the movies that they
watched when involved giant rubber monster suits. And uh. One
of my favorites today, which which I won't I won't
get break into too much, but is a film called
Hanuman Versus Seven Ultraman, and it is a it's an
Ultraman film, but it's a it's a Thai Japanese co
(02:34):
production in which Hanuman, the monkey god out of Hindu
mythology but also very important in Thai culture. Hanuman teams
up with the Ultraman and an ultra woman. I'm not
really sure. I'm more up on the Hindu mythology than
Ultraman mythology, but they team up to just beat the
tar out of a bunch of hideous monsters that emerge
(02:55):
from like a rocket fact manufacturing plant or something. So
it's goofy and beauty full and psychedelic and from like, yeah,
sixties or seventies, and it's it's well worth hunting down
if you're you two are a monster fan. But I
guess one of the things that I'm really highlighting here
is like silliness, Like there's definitely a large amount of
silliness and fun like kids love Gammera, kids love Godzilla.
(03:17):
But if you go all the way back to n Gohira,
you're you're really looking at a different animal. Especially if
you're you're not you're not dealing with the americanized version
that came out, like Raymond Burron and all the different translation.
But the original Grim Go Heiro movie is a different
animal time, right, because I mean, this is a far
more complex creature, right. The American version is not so
(03:40):
much concerned about the radiation part, right, right, right, But
the Japanese version, this is a creature born of radiation
and exuding radiation, right, I mean, the whole sort of
part of the mythology of an atomic test and it
brings this monster into being. But yeah, this original one,
like people were dying just from being near Godzilla and
right close to it, right, And there are far more
(04:01):
scenes of individuals. It's more of a disaster film than
a lot of the subsequent Godzilla films. Lots of people fling,
lots of people in camps, lots of people in hospitals
and lots of people dying from radiation poisoning. Culturally, it's
such an interesting film because you look at Japan's place
in the world at the time. You know, it's like
we're in the shadows of the Second World War, in
the shadows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and other incidents. Go
(04:23):
Here references an incident involving an American thermonuclear device attested
near Bikini. Ititall in the Pacific code named Bravos, detonated
with about two point five times greater force than anticipated,
and the fallout from the bomb it ended up enveloping
this tuna trawler named the Lucky Dragon number five, and
it's just just coated in like a blizzard or radioactive ash.
(04:45):
And so the crew members in return to their home
port and they're black, and they've blistered skin, just a
cute radiation sickness, and and all the tuna is irradiated.
And so, you know, I was reading some some interesting
commentary on this, which I'll link to on the blogs
so that people can explore it further. But there's a
lot of interesting commentary on how like this incident in particular,
especially on the heels of the Second World War. I mean,
(05:07):
the Japanese culture is very concerned with hygiene and uh,
and then you have this situation where you know, we're
just radioactively contaminated and not sure what is clean anymore.
And then there's also commentary to make about in especially
in subsequent Godzilla films, you see Japan using all of
its technological prowess to fight off an opposing force, and
that it can be argued that postwar Japan felt rather
(05:30):
powerless to a certain degree in the global climate, you know,
because they've just come off this disastrous armed conflict, and
so their fantasy world, their fictional worlds kind of reflect
this longing to be able to deal with problems more directly.
I mean not to limit the films to just that
it's not just a one plus one equals to situation,
but but those themes are pretty strong in the in
(05:51):
the films. Well, I was gonna say, you see that
anxiety working itself out quite a bit in these films.
Are twenty eight Godzilla films, and now is that counting
the the Geno movie. I believe that is, and I
know that that has been called an abomination, and not
in a good way. It's just the one where the
version of Godzilla is is that he's a lizard gets
(06:14):
messed with because of a nuclear meltdown and scatters it
and becomes a monster, which is kind of I mean,
I mean, I know that you know, Godzilla is uh
far fetched anyway, but I mean you couldn't make it
any more far fetched with that premise, right, But yeah,
twenty eight films, and from what I understand to Godzilla,
you know, at first is a very menacing figure, right
(06:36):
is the embodiment of the problems of nuclear energy, nuclear warfare,
and then he comes to later on represents somewhat of
a hero or at least take on this part of
as someone who is helping the people. And in fact,
they have different versions of god Godzilla versus this Godzilla
versus that Godzilla versus the small monster ecological problem um.
(07:02):
You see, especially in the famous Keen congressus Godzilla, which
is you know, interpromotional dream match there. This is really
on a slightly removed scale. This is the US versus
Japan again, and each country's cut has a slightly different
preference in who's the superior super monster. But then in
later films, Godzilla becomes not only a champion of Japan,
but a champion of Earth itself, defending Earth against various catastrophes.
(07:25):
And and then Godzilla's can do the same like Gammra
as always protecting the planet, protecting children, which I think
is kind of beautiful. Again, it's kind of the idea
that these uh we create, especially in the original Godzilla
and Gohira, we create this avatar of all our all
the worst possibilities of humanity, this frightening thing, and then
we're able to transform it into something positive, into into
(07:48):
like a strength. I don't know. I guess you can
make the argument too that it's kind of casting the
warnings aside and forgetting what the native potent to begin with.
But yeah, but again I think it's so this is
where you know, art movies paint things. Everything that sort
of allows us to work out these anxieties comes into play.
And in fact, MPR had a story this morning that
was talking about Fukushima a year later, Um, you know,
(08:11):
the the earthquake, the tsunami and um and then the
subsequent you know, mountdown of the three reactors, uh and
that you know, the real problem right now a year later,
isn't so much the radiation levels, which really aren't as
bad as the initially thought because much of them were
swept away by the winds out over the Pacific, but
(08:31):
more that it's it's a psychological problem because again you
have this long history with with you know, nuclear materials
Japan and this distrust and the year later, people are
still not quite sure if they feel, you know, like
they're on terra firma just you know, with their government,
with their food supplies, and it's just it's kind of interesting.
(08:51):
So they were saying that is not a culture that
really invests a lot into mental health. I mean they have,
you know, obviously you can go and you at medical attention,
but it's not so much geared towards mental health. So
there's not so much an outlet there. King Kong, on
the other hand, there's there's not I don't know, he's
not quite as deep. No, no, I mean this is
what the nineteen thirty three that King Kong comes on
(09:12):
the scene, and people have pointed to King Kong and
said that, you know, definitely King Kong embodies UM, so
that the naivete of American society and especially UM concerning
race relations at that time but yeah, King Kong, because
he's his foreign threat, this subhuman threat, and I think
you can sort of from an exotic place, exotic place.
(09:33):
He wants to steal women, climb buildings, and yeah, yeah, yeah,
I guess if you look at King Kong from that standpoint,
he's kind of awful, Like he's also kind of an
avatar of awfulness, just maybe in his an initial inception
when they want as conscious of it. Whereas Go here
is obviously the themes are a lot more prevalent and
on the surface, whereas King Kong and the awfulness is
(09:53):
kind of hidden. And yet in King Kong in the story,
you're meant to feel empathy for this creature, so you're
you to fear him, but you also are too empathize
with him, right because here he is he's the last
survivors species. He's lived on School Island his entire life.
He's a beautiful girl. Uh you know, he tries to
(10:14):
to I don't know, to make out with her or whatever,
and then he is essentially enslaved, brought to New York,
he made to perform on Broadway. I know, I always
forget about that portion of the story. And then and
then of course, the whole building thing and the airplane. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's a sad story. The remake of that was
a lot more in keeping with I guess the spirit
of the original is that the Jessica Lang one. Oh
(10:36):
there were no there were a couple of remixes, right,
there's one that there was like an eighties version of it. Yeah, yeah,
and that one was I think that one was just
kind of weird. I don't know if anyone has any
real love for that film outside of maybe you know,
cheesy enthusiasm. But then Peter Jackson, Oh that's right, okay, yea, yeah,
which my only problems with that one is a it
seemed I think that movie is like six hours long
(10:56):
or something like. It's awfully long for King Kong, and
I'll so I remember it just had some really look over.
I mean, I love dark imagery as much as the
next person, but like, this is King Kong and there's
this scene where these like all these horrible giant insect
monsters are like meeting people and giant slugs are like
sucking people's faces, and I remember thinking that this is
a bit dark. Jackson, Um, well, it was filler to
(11:18):
your point. You can't really make a film that long
with the premise of King Kong, you know, but still
it was over like everything was like like they're like
King Kong, let's do this, except we're gonna it's gonna
be King Kong on steroids. In the original, he fights
one dinosaur. This time he's gonna fight two dinosaurs. You know,
that's right, all right, So let's let's let's throw some
science on these beasts. Yeah, first, let's take a quick break,
(11:39):
and when we come back, we'll see stabbling about the
culture behind these monsters and so forth, and we will
start talking about the science behind gigantic animals and whether
it's even pot Alright, so we're back, and it's time
to get into the morphological limits of giant monsters. Yeah yeah, okay.
(12:03):
So here's here's just something that's a basic Okay, all right,
So if you're going to create something that's bigger than
the original, um, the weight as a function of their
volume is going to increase dramatically faster than does the
surface area, right this creature. This is important to remember
because this has a lot of important consequences. Um. So,
(12:24):
basically is that if you're going to double something size
and keep its proportions the same. The weight doesn't double
or even quadruple. It actually increases by a factor of eight. Okay,
so when we're talking about King Kong, we're talking about
a gorilla that is super giant, right, And when we're
talking about Godzilla, we're talking about dinosaur hybrid that is
(12:47):
runs on both gas and electric. That's right. He does
have some electric properties similar, which doesn't make any sense
with the flames in the radioactivity. I mean there's a
lot going on there anyway. Well, radioactive firestorms. I mean
that's part of the whole nuclear apocalypse scenario, you know,
Like you see the ridges on his back start to
get electrified, and then the fire comes out of his mouth,
and yet at the same time he's always exuding radiation.
(13:09):
I'm just saying, Yeah, there's a lot of port for
one fork. Yeah, well, Gamra has it coming out both ends.
So because you've seen Gamra, right, a big turtle, he
can retract his back to legs and then fire comes
out and he flies around. But I was going to
make like a little gas joke. There should be eight
year old boy in me. Yeah, I should have brought
in my Gamera toy too help us with this, but
(13:31):
I'm getting off track gadding about monsters. Another way to
look at this mass thing that I really like is
the spherical cow analogy. Alright, So the shape of an
animal can be a little complex, and it's a simpler
if you look at something like a cow, and look
at the cow and imagine it as just a sphere
like the mass just reduced to a sphere of calmus, okay,
(13:52):
and then imagine increasing the size of that that mass,
all right, And again the volume increases more rapidly than
the surface area. So if you double the ray idious
of the sphere, the surface area increases four times, and
the volume increases eight times. That again, like you said,
you double something size, and if it keeps the same proportions,
the weight doesn't double or even quadruple, it increases eightfold.
(14:13):
So you have something like King Kong, right, who is
thirty feet high in the film, five times the size
of a real gorilla, and his proportions are more or
less the same. If you were to take an actual
gorilla and you were to blow it up like that
in a you know, honey, I blew up the kid's fashion,
the creature would not be able to stand, its legs
would break. Basically, its own weights bones can't support it.
We're talking about thirty ft high tons, right. Yeah. I
(14:35):
was reading an interesting country about the size of animals
and how the size of something is very much. I
mean it's it's not just a matter of oh, this
is a big one and this is a little one. Yes,
there are there's a certain amount to be said about
dwarf is m versus gigantism in organisms. But but takes
something like a whale, Like a whale is large, and
whale is massive, and its mass allows it, among other things,
(14:57):
to keep warm and chilling waters. If you were to
reduce a blue whale to the size of a minnow,
it would not be able to stay warm. Its size
is part of its function. Would actually have to consume
far more, right for energy. Right, Yeah, That's why you
have things like mice and other small animals that are
just so ravenous that have an endless hunger because they're
having to keep up their metabolism. Yep. Yeah. So when
(15:18):
you're looking at King Kong and you're talking about a
creature that's a hundred and twenty five times heavier than
an original gorilla, right, and you also have the problem
that relative to the size, King Kong has only twenty
five times the surface area of an ape skin. Okay,
this is important because on top of that, you have
(15:38):
for that is five times as thick as a real gorilla.
Because he needs to lose excess heat, he's metabolizing like
like other mammals to keep warm. He's metabolizing. He us
to lose that excess heat, but he has less skin
to lose it through and more for that's insulating, right,
So it's a lot harder to wick off that heat, right, right,
So I mean you would have to shave constant and
(16:00):
then that might do it a hairless King Kong, which
would completely change that storyline, I think. But I mean,
just think about that if he were to try to
do any sort of normal movements. You know, first of all,
he would collapse again under the weight of um of himself.
But also he would probably collapse because you wouldn't be
able to again get rid of the heat, and so
(16:21):
he would just be in a jumbled mess. He wouldn't
be able to get the girl and climb to the
top of the Empire State building. Right. Another thing to
know about the legs again, he would need larger leg bones.
He would just need bigger legs in general, and he
would probably need a different gait, you know, instead of
having like eight light bendy knees, he would need more
of a straight legged type of movement, which would probably
limit his ability to climb skyscrapers. Yeah, indeed, all right,
(16:43):
let's talk about one husky boy here, Godzilla. Well, Godzilla
has kind of a leg up on the situation on
one hand, because because he's cold blighted or I don't know,
presumably he is cold lighted. Um. And in the American version, well,
who knows. In the America that doesn't count. Presumably Godzilla
is is cold blooded and accounting the nuclear fires brewing
(17:06):
in his belly. And uh. And we look back to
the dinosaurs, and these are clearly a great example of
a large creature that was a probably cold blooded you
know where the drew is kind of but but presumably
cold blooded for the sake of this argument, and was
walking around on land. Some of these guys were quite huge.
(17:28):
And while we used to think that some of these
different sarropods were we're walking around in the muck or
in the water. To help you, know, to buoy them,
especially if they if they were to make love right right, Yeah,
we talked about that in the dinosaurs. They probably the species,
but yeah, if they were going to make out, knock
boots whatever, there was always that question of how do
they actually do this because they are so weighty, um,
(17:50):
and in in Godzilla's case, we were talking about sixty
thou tons, right, like the size of a battleship, and
he does emerge from the ocean. That's worth noting. But
back to battleship. That's another interesting example. I ran across
took a battleship out of the water and put it
on land, like it would to what extent would it
fall apart because it doesn't have water holding it right? Right?
But okay, so the dinosaurs, for a while we have
(18:10):
thought that they that some of these larger models were
having to stay in the water all the time to
support their weight. A lot of the footprint information that
we have and now the fossilized prints, indicate that they
were walking around at least in the mud, you know,
and that therefore we're capable of land movement, maybe even
running as fast as stay an elephant, uh, you know,
like three miles per hour, I think. But here's the thing.
(18:32):
Addition having really thick legs like a cong or a
Godzilla would need. They also walked around on four, which
is again is an enormous help in Godzilla is walking
around on two. Well, especially if you're thinking about the
heart and pumping blood, it's another key thing because your
brain needs some of that blood. Yeah, and you we've
you know, sore pods have been somewhat of a mystery
in that respect too, right, because they have really long
(18:54):
necks and they have huge bodies, and so you're talking
about pumping blood from when end up a two hundred
meter long body to the other and that's a lot
of pressure. So if your Godzilla, you know, in order
to resist that kind of pressure, your arteries near your
heart would have to be made out of steel, you know,
and so that your your heart didn't burst. Yeah, Like
even giraffes, we've talked about the about this, their hearts
(19:16):
after piece very high pressure to force the blood all
the way to their brains. And uh, way back, one
of our first few podcasts tore that we talked about
exploding heads and reheb there was the some people are asking, well, well,
how come the giraffe's head doesn't explode when it bends
down to drink. There's actually they have a cluster of
arteries and veins that divert the blood flow under the
right circumstances to equalize the blood pressure. They've got adaptations
(19:39):
for that. But the blood pressure involved in some of these, uh,
these dinosaurs, these long necked sauropods, is like we're we're
looking at like eight times what would we encounter in
a normal animal. So something like Godzilla or or King Kong,
they would have to have tremendous blood pressure, like you said,
to just to keep the brain active, right, or you know,
maybe maybe they just get dizzy very once in a
(20:00):
while and that's why they're swiveling around the cities and
destroying everything. Well, that's that's I'm glad that you mentioned
dizziness because that's one way to get a quick idea
of what this is. What we're talking about with the
blood of the brain. Lay down for a few minutes
and then get up really quick. But not right now,
right now, So don't we don't know what you're doing.
I mean, you could be on a bus, on a
train walking, but that feeling that you get when you
(20:20):
get up really quick and you're like, oh, I'm so dizzy.
That's because you've your position has changed the bloodstic to
your brain. Uh. Imagine if you were even taller, it
would be even more of an issue. So that's another
thing to take into a consideration with these giant animals
is how's the blood flow gonna work? How are they
going to get blood to their brain? That we're dealing
with a whole new set of engineering problems. Here's another
sticking point, Godzi less skin. Yes, okay, it has to
(20:43):
be somehow strong enough to resist bullets variety of munitions,
but yet flexible enough to move around. Right, So I
mean that's that that's some serious engineering right there. It is. Yeah,
and nanotechnology wasn't even you know, next since in nine um.
(21:03):
And then another key issue to keep in mind with
the animal size is that you have to ask your
stuff like why why are animals as big as they are?
And why do they remain that way? Well? Um, like
size evolution has a lot to do with the arms
race between prey and predators and surviving various environments, like
there has to be a reason for something to be
(21:23):
that big, and granted, Godzilla kind of gets by with
the whole Oh it's a mutation or it's you know,
ancient ancient animal from a previous ecosystem plus radiation equals
something that doesn't quite make sense. King Kong has less
of an excuse because he's just living on an island somewhere, right,
And does he really have an environment and ecosystem that
supports his size. I mean, granted, there are like dinosaurs
(21:46):
on Skull Island and presumably he's eating some of those, right,
But yeah, but if he's the largest and most fierce too,
I mean, he doesn't have a natural predator that he
needs to be really that large and dominate anyway. Yeah,
I mean it's like when we're talking about super predators,
especially like this was us, wasn't it? Or I feel
like we were talking about this in the past podcast
about then are doppelgangers maybe oh yeah, oh their their podcast?
(22:08):
Yeah mind yeah, yeah, Okay, But if you think of
like any kind of superprederor especially like the prehistoric superpredators
like this giant like super shark, super tyrannosaur type creatures,
imagine them as kings the top of pyramid of bones
there at the very top, and that that pyramid gets
wider as you reach the ground, because those are all
(22:29):
the layers of food that have to support them. Like
the lowest layer, of course, is like plants, and then
there are a whole bunch of things that eat those plants,
and then things that eat those animals, and then things
to those animals, and at the very top you have
this this lofty king of all things. The environment can
only support so many of those guys, and there are
limits to what they can support, what they can give, right,
(22:51):
and what they can give. So so that's another thing
you have to ask about, especially like a King Kong
or anything that lives on a monster island, is to
what extent could the ecosystem possibly support an animal and
how how long could it supported before you know, Kim
Kong wiped out everything? Right, right, Yeah, he's not very sustainable,
that's the thing. So he's a perfect symbol for American culture.
(23:13):
I'm about to say, yeah, he's He's a good symbol
for gluttony for sure, Bob. But another symbol of American culture, right,
oh yeah, yeah, another beast um. What we're talking about
is the blonde haired giant menace Barbie. Uh. Since two
thousand and seven, Gallia Sland, now a student at Hamilton College,
(23:35):
unveils a monster she created for the purpose of showing,
um uh people the the sort of body dysmorphia present
in the Barbie doll. And she presents this at the
National Eating Disorder Awareness Week at different events. It is
a life size Barbie that she created. And I'm just
gonna throw some stats out there. Um, if Barbie were
(23:58):
an actual woman, Okay, she would be five ft nine
that's a reasonable height for yeah, yeah, she would have
a thirty nine inch bust. Now, Okay, in these times
of padding, maybe that doesn't seem too huge, but just
think about it that that really is quite large. It's
more like on par with maybe Dolly Parton, Okay, Okay,
(24:19):
So Dolly Parton is a good frame of preference for that. Okay, Yeah,
an eighteen inch waist, which is insane, Like, who would
that be on part with? That would be Vivianly from
Gone with a Wind And she was corseted to a
nineteen inch waist, and that's insane because she's super petite. Okay,
I think woman corseted to the point of passing out. Yeah,
(24:40):
to think about the like your typical hourglass dimensions would be,
you know, like thirty thirty four, thirty four being the hips,
twenty four being the waist, thirty four being the bust. Okay,
So here we have Barbie five nine, thirty nine bust,
eighteen inch waist and thirty three hips okay, so very
slender hips and a size three shoe. Okay. Now, of course,
(25:03):
with all the other Godzilla and King Kong proportions that
you know, that doesn't seem too crazy. But again, you
know these when we get the Godzilla dolls or I
should say toys rather or King Kong toys, we don't
actually think of them as fashioned after ourselves, whereas Barbie
is fashioned after a female human. So at five nine
tall and win one ten pounds, Barbie would have a
(25:26):
body that index of sixteen point two four and she
likely would not menstruate because of this, And if you
were a real woman, she would have to walk on
all fours due to her proportions. And I just thought
this was fascinating. Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in nine
and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at one pounds,
(25:48):
with a book entitled How to Lose Weight with directions
inside stating simply don't eat. Yeah. Yeah, that this is
the most monsters thing, like discussed in the podcast. And
there are two Barbie dolls sold every second in the world. Wow,
now that is world domination, my friend. Yeah, I far
(26:09):
better than a little girl, a little boy would want
to grow up in the Godzilla I think. I mean,
you can breathe fire. I mean, that's that's pretty cool.
You're turning your your your weaknesses into strength. You're standing
up for the environment, for for nation, for planet, for
little kids. I mean all that Barbie just wants sold
these weight and not learning maths. So yeah, but you know,
(26:30):
just a little fun like, uh talk about the limits
of human I guess you could say proportions. There's something
I want to throw out to the listeners. I wonder
has any work of fiction actually tackled giant creatures in
a more believable manner, like taking into account the physics,
(26:51):
because I generally that that's off the table with these
and I'm not complaining because I enjoy them. But like,
the only example I can think of about hand is
that there's a book by the author Michael Shea, who's
a fabulous sci fi horror and dark fantasy writer An
he wrote these books about this character, nif Bilin, and
he's always going on these like the guy is like
(27:12):
super into Dante's Inferno and the sex lies of the insects.
So he's definitely an author after my own heart. He
writes these sales about these characters, is going into the
underworld and and there's there's one episode where guys to
bring back this elixir to these giant underworld insects used
to to feed their larva, and he brings it up
and they feed it too. Bees. With this scheme, they're
(27:32):
gonna grow giant bees and then they're gonna have lots
of honey. And of course the bees then get so
big they can't fly and they're just rolling around and
the human ends up taking some of this and he
gets so big hecaus just in constant pain. And he's
first rolling around and he doesn't like fall apart at
any or anything, but he ends up having like crawl
into the ocean to support his weight. A dinosaur knocking boots. Yeah,
(27:54):
and then I think he gets like I forget what
happens to him. But if you want to read more
about it, check out the work of Michael Ja. He's
quite pacive. Uh, And do tell us what you think
about giant animals, giant monsters and again if you find
any in in fiction that actually make a little bit
of scientific sense, let us know. You can always find
us on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, we're stuff to
(28:14):
Blow Your Mind, and on Twitter, our Twitter handle is
blow the Mind one word and you can always drop
us a line at blow the Mind at Discovery dot com.
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